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Hello and welcome back to English Snacks. I'm

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your host Amber. Did you know that all episodes

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of English Snacks have a transcript? This means

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if you're a visual learner like me, you can read

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along. Feel free to look at the transcript or

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test your listening skills and read later. The

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choice is yours. Today we're going to look at

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a small detail in English that can feel confusing.

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But once you understand it, things become much

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clearer. I'll talk about why we say short -sleeve

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shirt and two -year -old boy. Not short -sleeves

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shirt and not So here's the idea. Sometimes in

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English, a group of words comes before a noun

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to describe it. When that happens, we treat that

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group like one simple description. And usually

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we use the singular form. even if the meaning

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feels plural. Let's hear some examples. Even

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though the break is five minutes long, we say

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five minute here because it's describing the

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kind of break. But if we move it later in the

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sentence, we can say, The break is five minutes

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long. Two. A three -day trip. Not a three days

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trip. Here, three day describes the trip. After

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the verb, we could say, The trip lasts three

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days. 3. A five -star hotel, not a five -stars

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hotel. Here we're not counting stars in a normal

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way. We're describing the type of hotel. The

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hotel has five stars. 4. A 10 -year plan, not

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a 10 -years plan. It's the same pattern. We can

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say, the plan lasts 10 years. 5. A 90 -minute

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movie, not a 90 -minutes movie. The movie is

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90 minutes long. 6. A 1 ,000 page book. Not a

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1 ,000 pages book. In a sentence, we could say,

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The book has 1 ,000 pages. So now let's connect

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this to the original examples I told you. We

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say a short -sleeve shirt, a two -year -old boy.

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Because short -sleeve and two -year -old are

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just descriptions placed before the noun. So

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we keep them simple and we use the singular form.

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Here's an easy way to remember. When the description

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comes before the noun, we use singular form.

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When it comes after the verb, use normal plural

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forms. Let's have a quick practice. Try this

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one. Which is correct? A two hours meeting? Or

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a two -hour meeting. Yes, a two -hour meeting.

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And the meeting is two hours long. If this felt

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a little strange, don't worry. It's completely

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normal. This is just one of those patterns you

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start to notice. more and more over time when

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you're learning English. Just keep listening

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for it and it will begin to feel more natural.

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Here are five example sentences to build on what

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you just learned. Feel free to repeat after me,

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either out loud or in your mind. 1. She took

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a 10 -minute walk before work. 2. We planned

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a two -day trip to the coast. 3. He bought a

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$5 coffee at the station. 4. They stayed in a

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three -star hotel near the city centre. I watched

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a two -hour movie last night. Power sentence.

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When a number and a noun come before another

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noun, use the singular form. When they come after

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the verb, use the plural form. Thanks for joining

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me today. I hope you enjoyed this episode and

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learned something new. Feel free to play it again

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and read the transcript if you need. I'm looking

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forward to sharing more with you soon. So as

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always, come hungry for knowledge.